Thorough investigation, deliberations lead to guilty verdict is dismemberment case

Tuesday

Apr 1, 2014 at 9:11 PMApr 1, 2014 at 10:13 PM

It took investigators 18 hours after Norman Raymel McCaster's body was found on Oct. 29, 2012, to establish his wife as a suspect in the case.

By Chris DettroStaff Writer

It took Sangamon County Sheriff's Office investigators 18 hours after Norman Raymel McCaster's body was found on Oct. 29, 2012, to establish his wife as a suspect in the case.

A Sangamon County jury deliberated more than seven hours Tuesday to decide unanimously that Juatasha Denton-McCaster was guilty of the dismemberment murder of her husband 18 months ago.

Sangamon County State's Attorney John Milhiser said he wasn't surprised the jury of seven men and five women took that long, even though circumstantial evidence just kept piling up during 5 1/2 days of testimony.

“There was a large amount of evidence presented,” Milhiser said. “The jury did its job in going through that evidence. The sheriff's office did a very thorough investigation.”

“The jury was taking its time to make sure it went through everything,” he said.

Denton-McCaster, 24, was convicted of killing her husband of two years and cutting off his head, hands and feet. She will be sentenced June 25 for first-degree murder, dismemberment of a body, concealing a homicidal death and obstruction of justice.

Milhiser said Denton-McCaster could be eligible for a prison sentence of up to 95 years, depending on whether or not the court determines the sentences should be consecutive.

The penalty for first-degree murder is 20 to 60 years in prison; for dismembering a body, six to 30 years; and for concealing a homicide, two to five years.

Denton-McCaster, as had been the case throughout the trial, showed no emotion when Circuit Judge Pete Cavanagh read the guilty verdicts about 9:30 p.m.

On the other hand, Fredericka Mosby of Chicago, mother of the murder victim, sobbed softly as she talked to the media outside the courtroom.

“We will talk about the good things,” she said of McCaster's extended family that sat through a week of sometimes gruesome testimony.

“I'm happy. These are tears of great relief,” she said. Mosby said it was difficult hearing and seeing what included graphic medical testimony, but that the prosecution team of Milhiser and assistant state's attorneys Karen Tharp and Matthew Weir “was great ... they were good.”

“It is obviously a tragic case,” Milhiser said. “I can't imagine having to sit in a courtroom and listening to the evidence that came in.”

He said the verdict is bittersweet because “nothing can bring Norman McCaster back to his family. But we can make sure she's held accountable for her actions, and we'll be asking for a lengthy sentence.”

A body minus its head, hands and feet was found at the bottom of an embankment in a rural area near Mechanicsburg by a nearby resident on Oct. 29, 2012. The body later was identified as that of McCaster, a 22-year-old Army National Guardsman who lived with his wife in the 1400 block of North Grand Avenue West.

Denton-McCaster became a suspect when Walmart receipts for the purchase of a reciprocating saw, respiratory masks, cleaning supplies, plastic sheeting and blankets and comforters were found at the top of the embankment 30 feet above McCaster's body. Those credit card purchases were traced to Denton-McCaster the next day.

She was arrested and charged with the crime on Nov. 26.

Authorities believe she shot her husband in the head with a gun she borrowed from a Univerwsity of Illinois Springfield classmate, then disposed of McCaster's head, hands and feet to ensure his corpse wouldn't be indentified.

Milhiser said the prosecution presented “overwhelming circumstantial evidence” as a result of the investigation by the sheriff's office and Illinois State Police.

“The evidence pointed to no one else but her, and the evidence is clear she planned this crime,” he said.

“It is difficult to believe that someone could do this to somebody they know, to their spouse. Thankfully, the jury agreed with our arguments and with the evidence in the case.”

Milhiser said the prosecution's case “was aided by the fact the victim was a good guy, as was testified to by his sergeant in the National Guard and by his father.”

The defense portrayed McCaster as someone who had changed in the months preceeding his death and suggested that he was using drugs. But witnesses testified that McCaster had no positive drug test results.

Sgt. John Fluechtling, a squad leader in McCaster's Crestwood-based National Guard unit, last week called McCaster “the soldier's soldier.”

“As a leader, I would love to have had more soldiers like him,” Fluechtling said.

“Everyone we talked to throughout the investigation of this case said the same things about him,” Milhiser said of McCaster.

The trial also included the first use of the online video conferencing system Skype in a Sangamon County criminal trial.

Both the prosecution and defense agreed to allow live testimony from William H. Anderson, a forensic toxicologist in Reno, Nev., via Skype.

Use of the system saved Sangamon County thousands of dollars in travel, lodging and other expenses for what turned out to be less than 30 minutes of testimony.